The Death of the American Mall

Last Sunday morning, CBS News ran a story on the dying American mall.  In the story, it made the assumption that the main reason why malls are dying is that people are shopping online.

Seriously?

Are you kidding me?

In my opinion, the real reason for the collapse of the malls is 2 companies:  Walmart and Target.  These 2 companies have dominated the landscape where others once did.

Of course, both of these companies have had their share troubles over the last few years, but both have managed to survive all their problems with little affect for the most part.

Granted these 2 companies killed most all other retailers in the past few years:  Ames, Bradlees, Caldor, Ann & Hope, Woolworth, and many others.  Feel free to add your own dead retailer to the list. 

Certainly many of these stores were standalone stores and not connected to malls, but the trickle down happened where many of the mall stores were affected to the point of closure.  This led to a lot of empty spaces in many malls.

Translation, no stores means no mall.  In fact, the website deadmalls.com is a great resource to read about the past of many of the former malls.  I highly recommend this site for anybody wanting to research the dead past of malls and its associated stores.

So why did CBS make such a stupid oversight? 

The answer is simple:  MONEY.

Both Walmart and Target are both big advertisers with the CBS TV network.  It is almost certain that they did not want to offend their advertisers by blaming them for the decline of the mall.  After all, you would be smart not to bite the hand that feeds you. 

What I found most interesting about the story was the fact that they mentioned the Mall of America.  While this is technically a mall in all regards, it is in reality a tourist destination.  Consider it like a Disneyland with a roof.

I have visited this mall several times over the years and while it does have a wow factor, it has declined significantly over the years as many of the stores have disappeared been replaced with more local stores instead of national chains.  Unfortunately the prices in many of these stores are significantly higher priced than their national counterparts. 

So honestly, I have no intention of returning back to that mall anytime in the near future.  Ironically, when I was out there, many locals say they shop at another mall (smaller and more realistic one) not far away.  I guess the real people in the area know better than the tourists. 

So did CBS do a disservice to the public with this story?  That depends on your perspective.  Ironically, the pictures at the beginning of the video included pictures of both Kinney Shoes and Woolworth, both of which were owned by the Woolworth Company, the same one I worked at for nearly 9 years.

Of course, I really watched this Sunday morning news show for the story on Shakira.

After all, her hips don’t lie.  Unlike that company called Staples.

 

Celebrating 5 Years Later?

It is an amazing thing.

It has now been 5 years since my termination from Staples.

Depending on how you want to look at it, it is either a good thing or socially the worst thing could ever happen.

Yea, I lost a good full time job with full benefits. On the other hand, the company’s stock has plunged to nearly half the value of when I left the company. This would have meant that I might have lost about 50% of my retirement plan if I didn’t leave the company.

Unfortunately over the last 5 years, I have yet to get a new job. Some may say that I am lazy and don’t care. The truth is that Staples has ruined me so bad that I am a toxic employee, even to companies that I could have very easily gotten into.

I still fill out job applications with no success; however resources limit me in how far I can travel for any job possibilities.

Mind you that I have a college degree as well but unfortunately that is about as worthy as nothing as it is over 20 years old. Certainly times have changed since then and going back to school to update myself isn’t even an option now or ever.

So now the best that I can do is continue to punish Staples with this blog and spread my story of just how evil this company really is. For long time readers of this blog, you may have realized that I have been writing more about current events than me lately, but I plan to continue my own story in the weeks and months ahead.

So what is my expected future? Unfortunately, I do expect much than this at the current time. Combining my toxic past with Staples and my current health condition, I don’t expect to get hired anywhere anytime soon. Place the blame where you want, but I blame mostly reluctant companies not willing to hire or even take a chance with me.

On a completely different topic, I have made a serious change to this blog.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have had people comment on a posting from over 9 months ago. One of the comments was rude and promptly deleted; the other I allowed but explained that their comment was explained by comments expressed by others in that same blog.

It all made me wonder if some people are just ignorant or just want to read what they want and just stop there. In both cases, the commenters were wrong, but the rudeness of one is just not acceptable.

This brings me to my point. Any rude comments will be deleted, no questions asked. I also must approve all comments before they are posted as well. I am also closing the period of comments to 30 days. I feel that this is more than adequate time to respond to posts as the much of the information I write about quickly becomes outdated or amended. This is not meant to punish people, but to close the door on old topics without deleting old posts. Note, however, that these changes affect only the WordPress edition of this blog and not the Blogger version of this blog. Blogger doesn’t allow to make the type of changes to limit times on comments so for now, this will remain unchanged.

I really didn’t want to make these changes, but I had enough of moderating old posts that should have been put way behind us.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Staples’ Turn

It was bound to happen.

It was announced last week that Staples plans on closing up to 225 stores in the next year.

Now let’s realize that they say “up to” which means that it could be significantly less than that, but chances are that it probably will be that number.

After all, being that odd of a number, they just didn’t pull that number out of thin air.

Or did they?

Personally I think this number will be much greater in the long term. The reason is simple: they are obsolete and there is nothing they sell that you can’t find someplace else.

And the new slogan doesn’t work either.

Make more happen. Make more what happen? It just doesn’t make any sense. But then again neither did “That was easy”. What really was “easy”?

Then there was the stupid “What the L?” ad. I say what the L are they talking about? Sadly they were trying to capitalize on Kmart’s “ship my pants” idea. It just doesn’t click at all. What is their point or do they even have one anymore?

It is quite apparent that the company is lost as far as their advertising is concerned. This does not help to bring in the customers at all.

Then there are the print ads. Pick up an ad from 5 years ago and it looks strangely similar to the same type of ad tactics used today. Maybe it is time to make a new approach to advertising.

All this helps create the problem leading up to the store closures.

So now the idea is why are these stores closing? As with RadioShack mentioned previously, Staples is planning on closing underperforming stores. Add to this, they want to close stores whose rent has come due and they wish not to renew in those areas.

Now I can understand all this. But, and it is a big but, in both companies’ cases, what about those overpaid executives?

Many of these companies are so overweight with high-paid executives; it makes Dolly Parton look flat-chested. Obviously, there is no need for so many of these companies especially given that many of those people who really make the company money are losing their jobs.

So while these executives spend their day playing Sugar Farm Bear Crush Casino, others are thrown to the street for no really good reason except that their store was an underperformer.

While no official list of store closings have been announced, I would not be surprised if the store that I was employed at would be on that list. The reasons I believe it would are as follows:

· It is an old store. The plaza it is located in is old and run down. Some of the walls in the store are cracked and the whole building structure never seemed safe to me.

· It is located too close to the airport. It may be convenient to the airport, but when a plane goes overhead, you definitely feel it.

· Too many intersections make it hard to get to. The only way I ever got there was to take the back road. Too much traffic to follow any other way. I always heard this as a major problem.

Overall, with the stock falling to just a little over $11/share, the company should consider getting rid of their far, not just those who actually do the work. But then again, Staples never did take the easy way out.

RadioShack and Sears Sufferings

Another possible hacking victim has been announced and it just so happens that it is Sears. As if this company didn’t need to be hurt anymore it now has been announced that it may have become the latest victim in this ongoing problem.

Of course, the keyword here is MAY be a victim as they are not really sure that they really are or not. Seriously here: why Sears is crying wolf when they may or may not be a victim? Certainly their customers should be kept more in the loop than just using the term “may be”.

No mention is given if Kmart, which is owned by Sears, is part of this possible attack. Since they both run similar register systems, I would say that they too are part of the attack.

It is sad when a company like Sears say that they may be a victim when companies like Neiman Marcus waited months to tell the world they were attacked. It seems that accountability is lacking in the retail industry.

I still believe that other retailers will announce attacks over the last few months including Staples. However, the longer companies wait, the more it will hurt their reputation and destroy their business. Hasn’t any retailer learned anything yet from the Target fiasco? Apparently not yet.

On another front, RadioShack announced this week that it plans on closing up to 1100 stores in the next few months. This would mean up to 20% of their stores would be gone. This is up significantly from the last round of closures announced a few months ago.

Apparently, sales to the retailer continues to slump to record levels causing the company to reevaluate itself. Why did they spend millions of dollars for a Super Bowl ad when they really couldn’t afford it in the first place?

So the real question is which stores will be closed and which ones may even be scaled back significantly.

My thought is that the stores that are going to be history already know who they are. It is just that the list has not been made public as they may not want to scare other retailers in the same areas to want to abandon the region as well. I also believe that many of the employees also know that their stores are closing as well. It is just that these employees are told not to talk to any media outlets as the company has not made any final announcements yet. Many of these stores have probably known for months that they were in line for termination and were warned that if sales didn’t pick up then they would close.

Unfortunately, nobody can make a customer buy anything at a certain store to try to save it from going out of business. What happens happens. Trying to force customers to make purchases will create a hostile environment that is bad for both the customer and the employee. However this is exactly what some companies do such as Staples.

What will be most interesting is to see whether most of the stores that will close are located in malls, strip malls, downtown centers, or standalone locations. My thought is that it might be an equal mix of all of these with more mall locations closing than anything else as malls are failing and many stores are starting to leave malls.

Speaking of company exits, the pizza location Sbarro seems to want to go bankrupt. They closed 155 locations in the last week including the one in the local mall. However, I feel that this company won’t be missed as most of their pizzas have been pretty bad in the last few years. I stopped eating at their locations about 4 years ago. Unfortunately, they are just the latest food court company closing up shop after declining food eaters in malls.

Overall the recent news of all 3 of these companies is more proof of an economy on the brink of collapse. Unfortunately, those who serve on stock boards are blinded by all the negative information and continue to push the stock market to record levels.

Certainly the 1% is winning while the rest of us are losing.

Am I Invisible?

This week a customer satisfaction survey was released naming the 10 worst retailers to shop at.

Amongst those that made the list were all 3 of the top drugstore chains. Not surprisingly that all 3 made the list simply because they are amongst the highest priced places to shop at and among the hardest places to find employees.

Also on the list is Macy’s. I am not surprised about this one as I have found most of their employees ignorant or just plain rude. Why are none of their employees ever look happy? Maybe they just hate their job because they are so overpriced.

Topping the list is the biggest retailer that everyone loves to hate and that is Walmart. Ever ask for help there? Good luck on finding anyone who is actually willing to help. I have found that if I don’t see it, they probably don’t have it. To make matters worse, a few weeks ago I was looking for new shoes in the store and it took me about a 1 ½ hours to find my desired size. The shoe department was a nightmare and last week I revisited the department to find a second pair and the area looked just as I had left it weeks before. It didn’t even looked like it was even touched for the last month. I have visited other Walmart stores and have had much better results. I blame the management for how disorganized and messy this store is. There is absolutely NO reason that a store cannot be kept up better than that.

One store not on the list but should have been is Books-A-Million. Try and get help at this store and you would be wasting your time. Sadly this store is no better than the Borders store it replaced. In fact, in the last couple of weeks, I have had complaints about the store and I filled out one of their online surveys to have management contact me regarding my issues with them. Unfortunately, it has been over a week since I took the survey and issued my complaint and still have not heard from any member of their management staff. I don’t expect to ever hear from them because they just don’t care and I am not the least bit surprised.

Finally, one store on that list is #7 and it is the dreaded Best Buy. Walk around the DVD/CD department and you will never find an employee. Same is true in the video game department as well. You may find an employee in the video department if you are lucky, but that is if you are lucky. However, go over to the computer department and there are employees all over the place.

That was until I had arrived looking for a new printer.

Usually I am bothered by at least one employee when I am in the store checking my email or checking on Facebook, but on this particular day while I was looking for a new printer nobody bothered me.

Why was I being ignored on this particular day? Do the employees not care about the printers unlike the computers? Or is it that they think that the printers are there to sell themselves?

Ironically, the one printer that I was looking at was missing the power cable so I had to disconnect the cable from the printer next to it and plug it into the printer that I wanted to try out. Still with everything I was doing, I was still ignored. After bouncing back and forth between a nearby computer to check reviews and trying out printers, I finally decided on one without any employee help and nearly 2 hours later. This is certainly an uncalled for approach to making a sale. It was a treat; however, to find out that by purchasing a printer and cartridges at the same time, there was a discount on the ink as well. In the end I felt somewhat satisfied despite my do it yourself sales approach.

The next day I checked the Target Cartwheel website to see what they had for weekly offers and surprisingly I found a better printer I was considering with a 25% discount making it cheaper than what Best Buy was selling it for.

Yesterday, I proceeded to Target and purchase that printer with no employee interaction in less than 15 minutes. I felt very satisfied compared to how I was treated at Best Buy. The printer from Best Buy will be returned back to them along with the cartridges unopened in the very near future.

One thing I did find interesting about the list of bad retailers was that Staples was not on the list. Could it be that they just don’t have enough customers to make the list in the first place? Certainly Staples as I have mentioned in previous posts do not have great customer service and seems to be dropping considerably in the last few years.

But then again, I am the invisible customer no matter where I go.

CVS, RadioShack, and G.M. Pollack -- All Losers

Way back in the 1990’s, there were 2 stores at the Maine Mall that carried cigarettes. They were CVS and Woolworth. At the time that I worked for Woolworth, there was a high amount of price competition between the companies.

When one would raise prices, the other would follow. If the price happened to go down, then same thing happened in reverse.

The reason was simple: it was a high profit product.

Despite prices at the time being less than $2 per pack, it was obvious that the market share was quickly dropping over time. It was no longer cool to smoke anywhere anymore. In fact, the only place in the mall where people could smoke was in our attached restaurant. So it was convenient for people to buy their smokes at our store rather than walking down to the other end of the mall.

It was always extremely important that the cigarette inventory was always kept up and that products were ordered when low. If nothing else in the store had strong inventories, this was the most important item we carried.

By far we sold much more than CVS ever sold mainly because of our location.

By the mid 1990’s, Woolworth had headed out of business so CVS became the only place to buy cigarettes. However, by the end of the decade CVS had left the mall leaving no store in the mall to purchase cigarettes.

What a shame that all these smokers of the mall had to leave the mall to get their tobacco fix!!

It was apparent that CVS has left many mall locations over the last decade or so, moving into self-standing stores or stores in strip malls. What is bad about that is that many more of them are getting robbed because they easier to get in and out of.

Is everyone at CVS that stupid to realize that robberies would be lower at mall stores than remote stores? Apparently not. I don’t ever remember any robberies at the Maine Mall store during its existence there.

Of course, back in the 1990’s and earlier, drugstores were robbed for money and cigarettes, not the drugs. Apparently the value of cigarettes means nothing to people anymore.

So the idea of CVS not carrying cigarettes anymore is a wonderful concept, at least initially. But why wait until October 1 to stop selling them? Are they unsure of where there future earnings will come from?

Going deep down into this idea, what about them carrying alcoholic beverages? Are they not unhealthy as well? Certainly they don’t want to lose all their profit channels so letting go of the cigarettes is still half-hearted at best.

Will other big retailers follow? I highly doubt they want to take the loss.

Speaking of loss, RadioShack has announced that it is closing 500 stores in the coming months. No word has been given as to which locations of its roughly 4500 locations will be the victims, but I would not be surprised if the Maine Mall store isn’t one of them. This one hardly has any customers anymore and is just simply dead.

But then again this company died several years ago anyway, just nobody ever told them.

And finally, a long existing store in the Maine Mall, G.M. Pollack Jewelry store has decided to close its prime retail space in the mall center court and move across the street to the Mall Plaza. Ironically, they moved into the same location that previously reviewed Newbury Comics had been located.

Do they really think they will see an increase of business by moving out of the mall traffic area? I think they will find that they did a huge mistake, but then again jewelry stores have been slipping in recent years so maybe they moved out of the mall to die once and for all.

Overall, we have 3 companies eliminating 3 different things. While I agree with 2 of the 3 eliminations, it is still up in the air as to whether they are all bonehead moves or the best idea ever.

25 Years Ago

Every relationship usually has a beginning, middle and an end.

The beginning started about a week after I started my employment at Woolworth.

The ending happened 25 years ago this week.

The date was February 2, 1989. It was a Thursday night when the personnel manager Dan was staying in the store that night to be with the cleaning crew that was coming in and waxing the floor of the store.

A girl employee Jodi decided to stay with him. I asked if I could stay with them as well.

Now here is where the problems arose to its peak.

For the last few months, I had been having a crush on Jodi. She was a couple years younger than me and found her a socially desirable person to be with.

This girl was not one of those drop dead gorgeous girls, but was still not an ugly girl either. Her nasally voice which sounded like the combination of a Brooklyn accent and a Maine accent made her that much more interesting.

However, she had some major issues. The big one was that she was emotionally shy and just the slightest thing sometimes would send her for a loop and upset her. The problem was that she never spoke up if something bothered her.

During the early months of my employment at Woolworth, I spent many nights with Jodi at the back register while she worked behind the counter at the customer service desk. So we spent that time doing a lot of talking and fooling around because the night manager hardly ever came around to see what we were doing.

I never asked Jodi out on a date during the time she worked at Woolworth despite my strong feelings for her. I felt that it would be wrong if something happened that shouldn’t have. So I had to use restraint for how I felt. However she certainly knew I really liked her a lot.

She never felt that she was ever harassed so I thought we got along real well with each other.

Then came that dreaded night. The 3 of us: Jodi, Dan, and me together in the store’s restaurant sitting in a booth together for most of the night.

We spent the night talking, laughing and overall having a good time together. We even had a snack from the restaurant, which I don’t think they ever got reimbursed for. Overall, it was a great night.

Or so I thought.

The cleaning crew got done around 2:30am and I got home around 3:15am on the following Friday morning. This is the latest I ever stayed out on a job even though I really wasn’t getting paid for it. So I was stupid in 2 ways: not getting paid and missing out on my supper when I got home.

Of course, I called several hours earlier to say that I was going to stay with the manager, but I made no mention that my true intention was to say that I was staying to be with my want-to-be girlfriend Jodi.

I thought all was fine as both me and Jodi had off Friday and neither of us would have to be back to work until Saturday.

This is when the problems began.

Jodi called out sick on Saturday. Of course, I thought nothing of it and considered that she was still tired after the late night a couple days ago.

Jodi was off on Sunday, but Monday she once again called out sick again.

Then she called out again on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

However, on Thursday when she called she said she was quitting and would not be back again.

I thought “did I do this?”

Did I drive her away from the job she loved?

Over the last couple of months, Jodi had moved from the service desk in the back of the store to doing the stocking in the candy section in the front of the store.

So this meant that when I was down back, I had to put up with 2 other people at night who shared the service desk on opposing nights. One was Nicole, a young mother in her very early 20’s and Tara, a girl about my age.

These 2 were about as different could ever be. Nicole hated me because she blamed me for Jodi leaving and Tara liked me to the point of actually defending me against Nicole's bad feelings. In fact, I thing Tara was glad that Jodi was gone so that she could move in and start liking me.

However, there were a few things about Tara that bothered me. First, she was the darkest white girl I had ever met. No, it was not tanning she was just naturally dark. Second, she was a smoker and because I am allergic to smoke that bothered me being around her. She did eventually quit the habit.

Finally, she enjoyed sitting in the dark while behind the service counter. Since the counter was built into the wall, it had its own light switch and she enjoyed sitting there in the dark. It was creepy to say the least, but she always had that mother hen approach to me defending me every step of the way.

There were nights when I know that Tara and Nicole worked together at night when I had off and I heard rumors that they used to talk about me and certainly the sparks flew between them.

It was quite apparent that Tara had a crush on me whereas Nicole hated me to no end. Of course, I had to put up with this for about a year before both of them eventually quit the company.

The relationship that I had with Jodi would be my tainting for the rest of the time that I worked at Woolworth as other female employees thought that I was responsible for Jodi's demise with the company.

It should be noted that about 2 weeks after Jodi left the company I was trained for the service desk job as if it were a punishment for my relationship with her. I continued this “punishment” even through my working years at Staples as I held the same position there as well.

And that my friends, is the legend of how I got to the service desk and unfortunately never really left it in either job I was at.

So what did I learn from all of this?

First, relationships can be toxic for good or bad. Certainly, I liked Jodi, but she did not reciprocate. Tara liked me but I foolishly was reluctant to be with her. She did ask me out once and like the fool I was I turned her down. In some ways, I really regret that move as I might be still with her today. Possibly, even in the dark.

Second, who you think are your friends may be your worst enemy. Nicole originally got along with me as long as Jodi was around, but when she left, Nicole became my worst enemy. Nothing would ever change her, not even how bad she treated me in general even when I reported her to the management. She was just a bad person in general.

I never saw Jodi or Nicole ever again after they left the company. Tara went to work at Ames department store after leaving Woolworth. She stayed with them until the company closed down and has not been seen since its closure.

Overall, if I had to do all this over again, I would have done things much different. I still would have stayed with Dan and Jodi, but Tara definitely would have been a different story.

However, unfortunately I can’t turn back the clock 25 years to a better time. What’s worse is that I never learned is work relationships should not happen under any circumstances unless you are willing to accept the consequences.

Little did I know that the relationship train would derail several more times over the next 20 years. Some much worse than others would dominate and impact me even up to today.

Those will be discussed in the future, possibly.